It's always amazed me how many gags there are about this guy in countless radio shows, cartoons, movies, etc, and what power he -as union boss- obviously held over the music industry of the 1940's and 50's.

For example, in the 1950 Warner Brothers animated short Hurdy-Gurdy Hare starring Bugs Bunny, the cartoon ends with Bugs making large amounts of money by having a (presumably non-union) monkey turn a street organ, during which he quips, "I sure hope Petrillo doesn't hear about this!" Phil Harris, the band leader on the Jack Benny radio show, once claimed on the show to have been married to his wife, Alice Faye, by Petrillo. When Jack Benny asked how Petrillo could do this, Harris replies "Why not? - my dues was paid up!". On another occasion Rochester is asked to blow the car horn by putting it in his mouth, and he replies "Petrillo won't let me!".

In the 1945 Crosby/Bergman film "The Bells of St. Mary's", when Crosby's character, Father O'Malley, is asked how he was successful in tracking down a long-missing musician, he points to the sky and quips, "I went straight to the top - Petrillo!".

In the 1950 burlesque revue "Everybody's Girl" the comedians Bobby Faye and Leon DeVoe, playing anti-nudist street preachers, mention that the Devil has "two horns." DeVoe then jokes, "Two horns? Brother, we'll have to speak to Petrillo about that!"

In the 1952 Hope/Crosby film "Road to Bali," Hope shows Crosby an instrument he's been using in his snake-charmer act. He quips, "Hey, I've been playing this flute all night. Have to clear it with Petrillo."

Anyone have any insight about Petrillo?

Every time I hear these gags, I wonder if the original audiences really knew what the heck the jokes were about and who this Petrillo guy was, or if this was just the ultimate running 'inside' joke.

I wonder if there's anyone today with this kind of power and influence over so many people in the entertainment industry?

But it's funny that once you learn more about the people in that time-era - the more humor there is in the programs.

For instance there are a lot of OTR stars that 99% of don't even know who they are who made big splashes back in the day.

One such person is "Dunniger" (single name.) He was a mind reader and he had his own show. I heard Mary Livingstone reference him the other day and he also showed up as a guest on Bill Stern in an epsidoes I heard this past week.

But he's mostly an unknown.

Another huge event in the 1940's was the birth on quintuplets. I can't remember their names now but they were so popular that they were in a lot of newspaper advertisements - at any rate, you often hear their names mentioned in comedy shows._________________http://otrbuffet.blogspot.com

Jimbo: They were the Dionne(spelling?) quintuplets. They were born in Canada. The Dr.Christian is patterned after the doctor that delivered them. That was mentioned in the very beginning of his first show. We listen to the Dr.Christian shows.

It sounds like it was a reference to his civil rights work for musicians. Some people back then probably didn't see that he could do much to change things (it was before the civil rights movement after all) and so they poked fun at the concept. I remember hearing about how Sammy Davis Jr. when he was a young performer couldn't even stay in the same hotel where he was performing. He had to go to another hotel because of segregation. They also had a similar remark during the war as I recall. Kilroy was here. I mean once the quote caught on everyone was using it.